20 Questions: Halle Berry

Halle Berry, the 25--year--old Cleveland-born actress and former beauty pageant contestant, knows how to leave a lasting impression. She brought an earthbound sweetness to "Strictly Business" and "The Last Boy Scout" and straight--backed dignity to the six--hour miniseries "Queen." For Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever," she gave a rancid--mouthed crackhead some dimension. In "Boomerang," Berry turned her third-lead, nice--girl art director into an impressive scene--stealer.

Now Berry is taking off in another direction, showing up as Rosetta Stone, a slithering, prehistoric temptress in Universal's "The Flintstones," co-starring John Goodman and Elizabeth Taylor. Midway through the shoot, we sent writer Margy Rochlin to speak with Berry at her West Hollywood hotel room: "The first thing Halle did," says Rochlin, "was offer me a weak handshake and admit that the idea of a long interview made her nervous. Then she threw herself down on her white couch and blabbed for the next two hours. She kept pleading, 'If you get bored, just tell me.' She never gave me a reason to."

1.

[Q] Playboy: In order to prepare for your role as a crack addict in Jungle Fever, you didn't bathe for ten days. What is the up side of skipping your morning shower?

[A] Berry: It was a freeing experience. We are so civilized. We have to be clean and smell nice and look pretty. It was refreshing just to let myself go and not care.

[A] I dread getting up in the morning and taking a shower, putting on makeup and fixing my hair. With that role, I could just pop out of bed, have my breakfast and go. I didn't even brush my teeth. You know how you get those little razor bumps when you shave under your arms too much? I didn't have that. And when I finally did shave, it was like a baby's bottom under my arms. I was showing everybody: "Look how pretty my underarms are!"

2.

[Q] Playboy: Did a different sort of guy start following you home?

[A] Berry: The bums! [Laughs] The bums were like, "Hey, baby, you're looking pretty good." It was funny because I'd actually talk to them. Some of them are crazy; they really need to be in a mental institution. But others really do have something to say. They're just down on their luck.

3.

[Q] Playboy: We know about the straw, blue, rasp and cran. What distinguishes the Halleberry?

[A] Berry: The Halleberry is a very sweet berry, and that's important. Being sweet and nice to people goes a long, long way.

4.

[Q] Playboy: When can a lady use four-letter words?

[A] Berry: When I'm really in the mood or pissed off, I can curse with the best of them. That is so much a part of me. But I curse only when I'm with my friends--I don't do it in public. In Jungle Fever, I could do and say whatever I wanted because I was that character. I could say "Fuck everybody!" I had all these fantasies that I would tell Spike to fuck himself. But I never did.

5.

[Q] Playboy: What's something that your husband, Atlanta Braves outfielder David Justice, doesn't appreciate about you that a movie director would?

[A] Berry: That I cry a lot. When I cry my husband sometimes doesn't react like there's a woman crying but says, "Come on, stop crying." If I didn't cry all the time, maybe he'd be more frantic like he's supposed to be. But I'm just real emotional. I cry when I'm mad, I cry when I'm sad, I cry when I'm happy. I cry a lot. Except when I'm doing a film. When they say "cry," all of a sudden I get dry.

6.

[Q] Playboy: What do you do when you go to the ballpark and your husband goes 0 for 4?

[A] Berry: I couldn't care less. I love him no matter what he's batting. But I feel bad for him because I know he's going to feel really down about it. He's going to take the heat from the press, from the fans. I hurt for him.

[A] But I don't go to the games anymore unless they're All-Star or playoff games. Now I watch them on TV. Whenever I was home, I would always go to the stadium and sit there and be a good wife. But I get so frustrated when he's not having a good day. I hear people saying, "Justice, you suck!" "Trade him!" Or he'll come up to bat and they'll say, "This time try to hit something besides air!" I take it personally. He's my baby, and I just don't like it. If I weren't Halle Berry, I would go off on some of those people. I feel like saying, "Hey, buddy, can you hit a ball going 95 miles an hour? Then shut the fuck up!" That is the ultimate fantasy.

7.

[Q] Playboy: How did you make your peace with baseball?

[A] Berry: I had to make a real effort at first. Those games are long. At my first baseball game, I was ready to go after an hour. Once I started to learn about the game--the intricate parts of it, the pitches, the plays, how to keep score--that made the time go by. Now I can sit through a three-hour game and think, Wow, where did the time go?

8.

[Q] Playboy: You were first attracted to your husband when you spotted him on MTV. If someone hadn't hooked you up, what would have been your next move?

[A] Berry: I had it all planned out, which is kind of sick. I was in South Carolina making Queen, and I was going to have my sister go with me to a Braves game. I was going to come up with some reason why I had to go down into the tunnel. I mean, I wasn't going to come on to him. I had just gotten over a really bad relationship and I had banned men for at least a year.

[A] But I just knew that if I could look him in the face, he'd fall in love with me and I'd fall in love with him.

[A] I'd already started to go through the motions. I found out when the team was going to be in Atlanta and I tried to plan my flight. Then all of a sudden it hit me: No man's going to want a woman this desperate. I'm going to look like an asshole.

[A] Then, two (continued on page 146)Halle Berry(continued from page 125) weeks later a guy called me from one of the Cincinnati papers to interview me. At the end he said, "You know, I've never done this before, but I have a really good friend who absolutely adores you and would love an autographed picture." I said, "Who?" And he said, "David Justice of the Atlanta Braves. "I dropped the phone on the floor. I said, "Give him my phone number instead of an autograph." So an hour later David called me and we talked for three hours. We hit it off like [snaps fingers] that.

9.

[Q] Playboy: Given the relative sexiness of baseball players, why did you go after a power hitter rather than a relief pitcher?

[A] Berry: Pitchers can look just like regular guys--short and kind of scrawny. Power hitters generally have better bodies and butts. They're stronger.

10.

[Q] Playboy: You've been a lustful reference in at least one rap song. Is this something you support or condone?

[A] Berry: I have a real problem with all those songs that refer to women as bitches or in other derogatory terms. I don't listen to them, nor do I buy them, nor do I encourage others to. People I know say, "Well, I don't listen to the words, I like the beat." They don't realize that subconsciously they're hearing the words. It's degrading. As women, we're fighting so hard to be viewed in another way. I don't like my name associated with it. I know they think they're giving me a compliment, but I don't see it that way.

11.

[Q] Playboy: In 1985 you were Miss Teen All American. In 1986 you were first runner-up for Miss USA. As the veteran of many beauty pageants, tell us: What makes a bad loser and what makes a bad winner?

[A] Berry: After the pageant, the bad loser will go around bad-mouthing everything. She'll put down the girl who won: "Look at her--she has fake tits! She has acne!" Just being obnoxious. She can't get over the fact that she lost: "Hello? You didn't win, goodbye, go home now."

[A] A bad winner? I know this after judging pageants: During the interview these girls give their perfect pageant answers: "Yes, I'd like to save the world." Then afterward at the dinner with the winners, these girls turn into total snobs. They've already used you and abused you and gotten what they wanted out of you--the crown. Then they're like monsters.

12.

[Q] Playboy: How did your more highbrow colleagues respond to the news that you'd signed on for The Flintstones?

[A] Berry: It's amazing how people can be so negative. Some people have said to me, "The Flintstones? That's a cartoon. I thought you wanted to be a serious actor. You just did Queen. I mean, Halle!"

[A] But not everything's going to be Queen or Malcolm X. This film was really important to me because to be a black woman and to be the object of everybody's desire in this movie is such a coup. The fact that these executives at the studio, who are all white males, took the risk to have a black woman as this character says a lot as to where we're going. No, we don't want to be just sex objects or be just beautiful. But the level of consciousness is being raised, and that's important to me. We're starting to be seen a little bit differently.

13.

[Q] Playboy: You haven't shown your revealing Flintstones costume to your husband. To soften the blow, are you going to give him an exclusive preview?

[A] Berry: No! He'll just see it on premiere night, if he can. He worries a lot about that kind of thing. I'd cause him a year of undue stress if I involved him with it. He's read things like, "She hasn't shown her husband," so he's like, "Well, what is it?" But sometimes the less he knows, the better. When it comes out, he'll see it. He'll see that it is what it is.

14.

[Q] Playboy: "It" is?

[A] Berry: Very bare. A long fake-fur skirt with those jagged edges and a split all the way up the side. The top is tight, very pushy-uppy. Thin straps, barely there. It's like a bikini. But more than actually seeing the costume, it's what I do in the costume that makes it even worse. I seduce Fred. I slither around, crawl over desks and use everything I have to get him entranced--which I do pretty much throughout the whole movie. He's putty in my hands.

15.

[Q] Playboy: No matter what film you're in, you're always the one who receives the kudos. Are your co-stars wary or curious about such a record?

[A] Berry: Hmm. Did you read my reviews for Queen? There were a few that really hit me hard. The harshest thing somebody said was that I didn't have the emotional range or capacity that this character needed. I thought, Say a lot of things, but I don't think that's true. I'm the most emotional person I know. They could have said other things--that I was stoic or stiff--but not that I don't have the emotional range.

[A] I've learned not to take it personally. But it's hard. I gave my blood, sweat and tears for that role. I was working with a broken tailbone, in pain. So when someone just uses a stroke of the pen to dismiss what I've worked so hard at, it's disheartening.

16.

[Q] Playboy: Is it easier for a film critic to like the work of someone who might actually be a nice person in real life?

[A] Berry: Yes, that certainly was the case with me and Robin Givens in Boomerang. People thought I played myself and she played herself. Robin has gotten such bad press because of what she did to Mike Tyson. So many people in the business think she's bitchy. People won't feel sympathetic toward her until she starts doing nice things in her personal life and people start writing about it. The image you portray is important. People ultimately have to like you to pay seven bucks to see you in a film.

17.

[Q] Playboy: Every woman of the Nineties needs a method of self-defense. Have you ever been in a fight? If so, who won?

[A] Berry: Oh, yeah. Not in my adult life, since I'm now old enough to know better. Growing up I would get beat up a lot. I'm passive. I don't like confrontation. So sometimes people would pick on me because they knew I wouldn't fight back. But sometimes I'd stand up for myself, and I would end up in a fight. And, usually, I would get beat up--but only because it would be three or four of them and one of me. It made me stronger. If I ever fought one-on-one, I'd probably kick somebody's ass because I'm used to fighting four at a time. If I ever got into a fight with Robin Givens, I'd probably kill her. [Laughs]

18.

[Q] Playboy: Let's focus on another of your daring adventures in role preparation: Before you played an exotic dancer in The Last Boy Scout, you paid the owner of a club to let you dance in a bikini top and G-string. What's the view from the perspective of a stripper?

[A] Berry: It's a bunch of drooling, drunk men looking up your underpants. Nothing against the girls who do it, but it was humiliating for me. You're just a thing. They're saying things to you.

19.

[Q] Playboy: What comments did you appreciate? And what should have been left unsaid?

[A] Berry: I didn't appreciate any of them--until I was walking out and one of the guys said to me, "Sweetheart, you don't belong here. Get out."

20.

[Q] Playboy: As a teenager you worked in clothing stores. What life lessons did you pick up while behind the cash register?

[A] Berry: When I worked in retail, the customer was always right. No matter what they do orwhat they think, the customer is always right. They forget that out here in Hollywood.

hollywood's freshest face speaks out on insulting rap lyrics and recreational swearing and warns robin givens not to pick a fight